Sunday, December 29, 2013

Goodbye 2013...Hello 2014!

It's hard to believe I haven't written anything for a year and a half. Once again, my 2014 resolution will be to try and get something down at least once a week, with our without photos.

In the summer of 2012 I was worried about the drought. 2013 brought lots of rain in the spring, and enough through the summer to make everything happy. There was snow early in December and it has stayed thanks to unseasonal cold temperatures. A few days before Christmas came the ice storm. Throughout the County (and the whole of Southern Ontario) there was major damage to trees - many limbs were snapped off due to the weight of the ice.

Birch trees bent over on Christmas day

In my garden there are a lot of branches on the ground, but nothing major and nothing that likely was not dead to begin with. The biggest potential issue as been with bent over trees. These are the small birch and maple, 10 to 20 feet high, that are bent almost to the ground. There are even a few juniper bent like this.

The ice made the County a magical place. Imagine driving through the middle of a sparkling, silver tinted photo as sunshine reflects off a million angles of ice coated twigs, branches, fields and fence posts; an almost turquoise blue sky above with a line of clouds in the distance. That's how it was.

Here's to 2014, when I hope to share some stories and projects from the past year as well as new discoveries and surprises.